Study: Millennials opt for Walmart over Amazon

By Katherine Boccaccio

Kansas City -- A new study of the millennial generation shows that many 25- to 34-year-old shoppers change their purchasing habits and behaviors after they start their families.

According to the “Millennials as New Parents” study, fielded by Vision Critical and conducted and analyzed by Barkley, when given the choice to shop at one store for the rest of their lives, millennial parents chose Walmart over Amazon.com and Target. The group also chose brick-and-mortar Walmart and Target locations as their shopping destinations of choice, over online stalwart amazon.com.

When broken down by income level, the answer shifts slightly. High-income millennial parents chose Target, while middle and low income brackets chose Walmart.

Before they become parents, millennials rank their favorite brands in order of descending importance as Nike, Sony and Gap, with 10% naming Nike as their top choice. After they become parents, millennials continue to name Nike as their top affinity brand, but at a much lower margin. Only 6% put Nike at the top — followed by Target and Apple at 3% each.

Millennial parents are pragmatic — when compared to before they had children, they buy significantly more based on price than they do on quality. Before they were parents, their buying decisions were 57% on quality. After parenthood, they buy just over 50% on quality.

In some categories — dining and entertainment, apparel, and digital products — the change is more dramatic, with the shift away from quality and toward price dropping as much as 20%.

Millennials, the most transparent generation ever, continue to remain heavily connected online even after they become parents. Over 35% of millennial parents claim to have posted on Facebook in the last day.

Millennials as a whole regularly trade private information for perks from brands they favor. However, that willingness falters a bit when millennials become parents, with 48% claiming they are less likely to give up private information about themselves in exchange for promotional perks.